Tuesday, July 31, 2012

WASHINGTON — For genealogists, President Obama’s family tree is the gift that keeps on giving.

There was Dick Cheney, Warren Buffett and Sarah Palin. On Monday, genealogists added another notable figure to Obama's unlikely list of relatives: John Punch, a Virginia slave who some historians consider the first African enslaved in the colonies.

The connection to Punch, an indentured servant forced into slavery in 1640, comes from Obama’s mother’s side of the family, said Joseph Shumway, a genealogist with Ancestry.com, the website that has been researching the president’s family tree for years.

In a not so rare bit of Fauxcahontas envy, with less than 100 days before the 2012 election, genealogists have "uncovered" a link between Obama and slavery. AP might have thought this nothingburger story might give the 'Bamster a little more street cred, to have the "blood of slaves" flowing through his veins, but I don't think there are that many people in this country that give a rat's patoot whether Barry is 50% or 51% or 52% black.

Even if it were true, having an ancestor that far back on the family tree did nothing to shape his thinking in his formative years or beyond. Besides, it doesn't matter who Obama is so much as what he has done, which is nothing helpful and much to harm the economy and prolong the recession. That's why Obama is running on his "vision" for America, because he cannot run on his record.

And if you read this story all the way through, three paragraphs from the end, you are treated to this:

Obama’s connection to Punch is similarly inconclusive

Inconclusive, eh? Color me unimpressed.

But, the choicest irony of the story, and the one reason why Obama would be wisest not to incorporate this into his re-election narrative, is that Obama's tenuous claim to the blood of slaves, comes through his "typical white grandmother". Being two generations closer to her slave roots did nothing at all, according to Obama, to make her more sensitive to the plight of minorities. It might be entertaining to hear Obama try to make the case, though.

Lou Dobbs attempts to confuse liberals here, with the facts on the efficacy of gun control laws.

Bloomberg's statement reminds me of arguments I used to hear, that handguns' "only purpose" was to kill people, "that's the only thing they're used for". I always wanted to have these folk walk up to the first policeman they saw, and ask them how many people they'd killed, since that was the only thing their sidearm for good for.

Use the comments as an open thread on any of these topics. If you feel that I’ve neglected a link, news, commentary, humor or Rule Fivage, send a link to the contact email on the sidebar. (All spambots must die!)

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a pilot in Fighter Squadron 32, while attempting to rescue a squadron mate whose plane struck by antiaircraft fire and trailing smoke, was forced down behind enemy lines. Quickly maneuvering to circle the downed pilot and protect him from enemy troops infesting the area, Lt. (j.g.) Hudner risked his life to save the injured flier who was trapped alive in the burning wreckage. Fully aware of the extreme danger in landing on the rough mountainous terrain and the scant hope of escape or survival in subzero temperature, he put his plane down skillfully in a deliberate wheels-up landing in the presence of enemy troops. With his bare hands, he packed the fuselage with snow to keep the flames away from the pilot and struggled to pull him free. Unsuccessful in this, he returned to his crashed aircraft and radioed other airborne planes, requesting that a helicopter be dispatched with an ax and fire extinguisher. He then remained on the spot despite the continuing danger from enemy action and, with the assistance of the rescue pilot, renewed a desperate but unavailing battle against time, cold, and flames. Lt. (j.g.) Hudner's exceptionally valiant action and selfless devotion to a shipmate sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice. In the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

In 2008, Obama instructed Joe the Plumber on 'sharing the wealth'. In 2012, Obama instructed the rest of us upon what his underlying philosophy rests. Mimicking or channeling the words of Fauxcahontas, Elizabeth Warren, Obama uttered the infamous words, that "if you were successful, you didn't make that!"

Last week, in "The Platte River President* on Economics", we focused on the wrong headed and shallow notion that one's success was more rooted in the infrastructure that government provides, rather than hard work, good ideas and self reliance in making one's business work. It was noted in passing, and elaborated upon in the comments, the inconvenient truth for this administration, that the schools and roads and bridges, among other things, like public libraries, that Obama was crediting with the success of making business prosperous, were in all likelihood paid for in greater proportion by those prosperous businessmen than by society at large.

Since Obama seems more at home in fictional scenarios than running on his actual record, we will for the moment pretend that Obama is the president of Springfield, home to Homer Simpson and his boss, the eeeeeeeevil Charles Montgomery Burns.

Mr. Burns lives in a palatial mansion and owns a nuclear power place. Mr. Burns pays more in property taxes than the hapless Homer who works for him. And though the fictional Mr. Burns must have contributed far more in taxes than his employee, Homer and his family were given access to those same roads, bridges and schools that benefitted the wealthy, while paying but a fraction of their cost.

Mr. Burns was childless and therefore was subsidizing the education or the townspeople with children. Yes, he benefitted from an educated work force and easy access to his business, he paid, by far, a greater percentage of his wealth to build and maintain that infrastructure, in addition to providing the jobs and power the community needs to prosper.

Enough of fiction, you might say! The Simpsons aren't real! Okay. How about this example? You are being bombarded by the Left that Big Oil and Big Business are evil, and greedy and make their wealth at your expense. You are supposed to at least envy them if not hate them. But, consider Andrew Carnegie...

Andrew Carnegie made his wealth from Big Steel. In addition to providing many good paying jobs and products used around the world, Mr. Carnegie was a philanthropist. He contributed millions of dollars to building thousands of libraries here in the US and around the world. (Notice how I snuck "public libraries" into Obama's infrastructure list?) The epitome or acme of a musical performance was once considered to performing at "Carnegie Hall". A beautiful concert hall, contributed to the community by the eeeeeeeevil capitalist, Andrew Carnegie.

Funny what people will do when allowed to keep more of their own money!

But, is it really theirs to give? Ah! According to the Fauxcahontas/Obama wing of the Democrat party, your so called "accomplishments" all took place, the Fauxbamists say , as a product of our collectivist society. Therefore, if you "didn't build it", then why should you solely enjoy its benefits? Is it not the duty of government to "spread that wealth" more equitably among those less fortunate (so long as they vote early and often?).

What Obama proposes in the name of "fairness" is, in reality, a covert attack on personal property rights. It is a rationale for the government to redistribute what you have. After all, if you cannot be credited with having legitimately earning it, then why can't the government come in and relieve you of it?

And that, my friends, is Obama in a nutshell. A government big enough to give things to you is big enough to take things from you.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Here, I thought I had flown into Ohio, turns out, I overshot Ohio and ended up on the Bizarro planet. A little jet lagged and behind in my blogdasarian duties, I brought dinner back to the hotel and passed on an HBO movie where absolutely no one in the cast wore any clothes (okay, they were animated birds!), after having been assailed by a promo for Real Time with Bill Maher. (The primary problem being that Real Time isn't Real Funny!) Notice how many shows on HBO tout themselves as "Real"? Real Time, Real Sports, Real Sex. Reminds me of the lady who said, "Honey, if you have to hang a sign around your neck saying you is, then you ain't!" But, I digress...

So I watched a little bit of Special Report with Bret Baier, without Bret Baier. Charles Krauthammer was on the panel, so I thought it might not be too bad. I couldn't tell you of anything spectacular ventured on the program until this blonde, whom I surmise to be A. J. Stoddard, said something spectacularly ill informed.

Speaking of the Colorado theater shooting, she said of the ammunition he purchased, and I speak from memory, that "none of this ammunition is used for self defense."

Fancy that! I have a Glock .40 that I have personally used for self defense, which uses, wait for it, .40 cal ammunition. He carried an 870 Remington shotgun, which is an excellent home defense weapon, and an AR-15, chambered in .223. Some of you might be old enough to remember the LA riots, where Korean shopkeepers climbed up to the roofs of their shops, armed with guns very similar to the AR-15, to defend their property against looters and arsonists. I don't know if they ever had to fire a single shot, but their presence served as a deterrent.

Let's recap: All three varieties of ammunition have been used or could certainly be used for self defense. If you want to argue about the quantities of ammunition he ordered, that's another story. But, if you don't know what you're talking about, please educate yourself before you enter the adult world of discussions on firearms laws and regulations.

Which brings us to Bill O'Reilly. He hit the trifecta tonight. I almost never watch Mr. O, but after yet another lap of the channels available, I saw he was going to have Bernard Goldberg on, so I thought, Aha! Another bright spot.

So I turned it on in the background and looked up as Bill was launching into a rant. First, he made some crack about buying bazookas without the Federal government knowing about it*. This, of course, is patently absurd, particularly if you are speaking of a functional bazooka with ammunition. These are highly regulated devises that are not commonly available to civilians.

I thought it was just part of his "Shtick", that he was saying something so hyperbolic for comic effect. He followed that up with a statement that one can buy machine guns without the feds knowing about it. He generated quite a bit of faux outrage at this! Unfortunately for Bill, it isn't true. The only people who can purchase machine guns are those who have Federal Firearms Licenses (FFL).

These weapons are tightly regulated and FFLs are not easy, or inexpensive to obtain. I cannot explain why, buy Mr. O'Reilly was getting quite incensed over something that simply is not true.

He compounded the idiocy with a parting remark about how it is "irresponsible to take a six year old to a midnight showing of a movie to be killed", as if it were somehow responsible to take a six year old to a movie matinee to be killed.

Hindsight is 20/20 Bill. Except for one deranged person, taking a six year old to the movies is hardly the act of an irresponsible parent. Bad judgment? Maybe. I wouldn't have done it, but like your rhetoric about bazookas and machine guns, your use of the word "irresponsible" was, well, irresponsible.

* I heard the quote a second time. It was more like "terrorists can buy bazookas without the FBI knowiung about it. Sheesh!

Just as 9/11 forever changed the way we (and the government) look at airports and airport security, so the theater shooing in Aurora this past week threatens to do the same for our entertainment venues.

Theater owners and associations of theater owners are making public condolences and investigating ways to beef up security in their theaters, but how much of that toothpaste is already out of the tube? Movies have always been a form of escapism - people go to the theater to sit in the dark and dream other people's dreams, and to forget about their own situation for an hour or two. The word "amusement", in fact, comes from the Greek, where the privative "a", (as in "atheist - one who believes there is no God), comes in front of "muse" - to think. Literally "to be amused" is to stop one's thinking.

From the Dark Knight Rises trailers, we see a bridge being destroyed and a football stadium, filled with onlookers, as the field literally disappears from under the feet of the players, but, everyone in the theater knows that ultimately, it's not real. It's a trick of the camera or computer. Computer generated images (CGI) combined with intricately detailed scale models create a world that can be destroyed without anyone ever getting hurt! So the guy with the dead end job (or no job), goes to the theater, and says to himself, "Yeah, I may have it bad, but look! They're trying to kill that poor SOB!"

Fast forward a couple of weeks. You walk into the theater and you see an armed, uniformed guard in the lobby. Feel safer? The Aurora shooter came in the back door. How many guards do you think it would take to adequately guard every movie theater, mall and stadium in the country against that kind of intrusion?

And if you could get enough guys, they aren't working for minimum wage, so that would get added to the cost of your movie ticket, the price of which already has many people balking and seeking out different forms of entertainment.

Answer me honestly, the next time you go to the movies, as you enter the theater, will you be noting where the exits are a little more carefully than before? The first gunshot that explodes on the screen, as the character looks around to see where it came from, how many in the audience will be looking around to see where it came from, too? Anyone ever get up during a movie to go to the concession stand, answer a phone, or hit the head? Which gets more of your attention now: the movie, or weak bladder guy?

Even though the shooting in a Colorado theater was an aberration, and might never happen again, how many people do you think will feel a little uneasy over sitting in a dark room with that many strangers? How many do you think will want to opt for a DVD and a dead bolt on their own front door instead?

Oh, and if I haven't totally soured your next movie going experience yet, one last thought:

If they do hired armed security to patrol inside the theater? The Aurora shooter had a clean criminal record except for one speeding ticket. There's nothing that would have prevented him from getting the job himself.

Mr. Blackbeard! Do you have a statement about the government ban on high capacity (2 shot) magazines?

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, wrote in a statement: "If Congress had not allowed the ‘Assault Weapons Ban’ to expire in 2004, the shooter would only have been able to get off 10 rounds without reloading."

...unless he brings more than one gun. Or an illegal, black market magazine. Seriously. Do you think that anyone who is willing to break the whole, Thou Shalt Not Do Murder statute is going to be deterred by a ban on an eleven shot magazine? Or fifteen? Or thirty?

Aside from the fact, that with a little practice, reloading can be accomplished in a matter of seconds, whether it is a semi-automatic pistol, or a six shooter or a muzzle loader, if you anticipate firing more rounds than your weapon holds (and you're not planning a "suicide by cop"), you bring more than one weapon. Or a friend with one. Or more than one.

When David Dinkens was mayor of New York City, a couple of tourists were stabbed in the subway. When asked by a reporter for a statement about the two people who were killed, Dinkins' knee jerked and he said, That's why we need more gun control laws.

Banning certain types of weapons or accessories won't address problems like the Tucson shooting. There are already laws on the books about selling guns to mentally unstable people. It's a knee jerk reaction. The legislature would do well to see why this unstable man wasn't referred for a psych evaluation before he ever hit the sporting goods store.

Here at Proof Positive, we have a long standing (as opposed to long jumping) admiration for women's track and field, that goes back at least as far as...what time is it now?? Rule Five had nothing to do with it!

Use the comments as an open thread on any of these topics. If you feel that I’ve neglected a link, news, commentary, humor or Rule Fivage, send a link to the contact email on the sidebar. (All spambots must die!)

“At a Democratic fundraiser in Seattle earlier this week, Vice President Biden said that Romney’s economic policies were ‘George Bush on steroids’ – as opposed to Obama’s policies, which are ‘Jimmy Carter on Ambien.’”

Thursday, July 19, 2012

By now, you've surely heard Obama's collectivist rant, that if you were successful, you didn't do it on your own. He seems to be channeling the original Fauxcahontas, Elizabeth Warren, who said:

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for."

Got that? If you are rich, if you are successful, you didn't do it on your own, you got a lot of help from the public** who financed the infrastructure. But, have you ever driven by a strip mall, where one or more of the tenants, but not all of them had gone out of business? Or driven by two businesses side by side where one was open for business and the one right next door was shuttered and boarded up?

Didn't the same roads and bridges supply both businesses? Didn't the same schools educate those who worked in the strip mall? The same fire and police protect them all?

Mr. President, Ms. Fauxcahontas: Did you ever consider that since the same infrastructure is there for both those who succeed and those who fail, that maybe there's something else to whether or not a business succeeds than merely the community infrastructure? And it is possible that some of that something, that allows one man to keep his doors open and make payroll every week, can be weakened, or crippled or even killed off by taxes that are too high.

Raising taxes on businesses makes them less competitive, more likely to fail and less likely to expand and hire more workers. The way to get the economy back on its feet is to stop the frivolous and wasteful government spending, (as you promised when you ran for office in 2008, Mr. Obama) and lower taxes across the board.

But you are on the record as wanting to raise taxes for the sake of "fairness", even if the end result is an equality of misery.

* The Platte River was once said to be a "mile wide and an inch deep". Yeah. That fits!

**The more successful members of the public already paid more than their less successful brethren.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Cpl. Hernandez, a member of Company G, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. His platoon, in defensive positions on Hill 420, came under ruthless attack by a numerically superior and fanatical hostile force, accompanied by heavy artillery, mortar, and machinegun fire which inflicted numerous casualties on the platoon. His comrades were forced to withdraw due to lack of ammunition but Cpl. Hernandez, although wounded in an exchange of grenades, continued to deliver deadly fire into the ranks of the onrushing assailants until a ruptured cartridge rendered his rifle inoperative. Immediately leaving his position, Cpl. Hernandez rushed the enemy armed only with rifle and bayonet. Fearlessly engaging the foe, he killed 6 of the enemy before falling unconscious from grenade, bayonet, and bullet wounds but his heroic action momentarily halted the enemy advance and enabled his unit to counterattack and retake the lost ground. The indomitable fighting spirit, outstanding courage, and tenacious devotion to duty clearly demonstrated by Cpl. Hernandez reflect the highest credit upon himself, the infantry, and the U.S. Army.

There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice. In the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

There's a rumor going around that desperate Democrats will somehow try to tie Mitt Romney to the villain, Bane, in the newest Batman movie opening this week. As lame as that sounds, it got me to thinking what to look for if we were casting one of our presidential candidates in the title role of "Batman":

If the cowl fits? With that lantern jaw, advantage Romney! (see above)

Ditto the utility belt and tights. Does anyone really want to see the skinny kid from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a Batsuit?
-Advantage Romney

Which candidate can you imagine having the cash to create all those marvelous toys Batman has at his disposal? (Or his wife letting him spend it?)
-Advantage Romney

The Batmobile: Does it get better mileage than a Prius? Can't see Obama driving an armored gas hog.
-Advantage Romney.

Which candidate can you imagine having a life long relationship with the family butler, Alfred?
-Advantage Romney

Tony Rezko sold Obama a house with an adjacent lot he didn't pay for, but sadly, no BatCave. Romney caught a lot of flack for installing an elevator for his automobiles in one of his stately mansions. Can you say, "To the BatCave, Robin?"
-Advantage Romney

Finally, does Batman seem to be the type to pal around with domestic terrorists and those who would bomb government buildings or does that seem more like his nemesis, the Joker? Doesn't Batman sound more like the type who would hang around with Donnie and Marie?
-Advantage Romney

Looks like our man Romney would be our Caped Crusader, hands down. But, as far as jokesters go, we still have the guy who assured us the private sector was doing well, that paralegals would assist you if you faint, and that he was going to visit all 57 states in his campaign as well as a close association with members of the Weather Underground.

“Researchers at the University of Minnesota now say that because of the recession, women are jumping into bed with guys faster. They say women are having sex with men after just one drink, all because of the recession. Finally, we are beginning to see the true benefits of the Obama economic plan. ”

Use the comments as an open thread on any of these topics. If you feel that I’ve neglected a link, news, commentary, humor or Rule Fivage, send a link to the contact email on the sidebar. (All spambots must die!)

For information about purchasing his completed art or commissioning new projects, contact him at

john555cox @ hotmail.com. (No spaces)

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